Patch Notes for October 21st Experimental Card w/ Video

I’d really like to know the thought process behind revisiting the gravity-defying roll buff for McCree. It looked and felt silly the first time, and now, I don’t understand why the team once again seems to believe he needs more mobility even with his HP buff still intact. I’d think they’d at least nerf the HP at the same time.

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Out of all of these things, the Torb buffs concern me the most.

Torb was already a solid pick. Nobody plays him because he just isn’t fun for the majority, not because hes bad.

All I see in these changes is 1. Trying to deal with Double Shields. And 2. Trying to “fix” the game without touching Tracer, Bap, or Double Shields.

Instead of, y’know… actually nerfing the issues… they’re just going to overbuff everyone to keep up with the issues.

It’s sad and such a waste of time.

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Hello AndyB,

– I have multiple questions about this Experimental.

Why did the balance team decide on buffing tank busting in general?

Why weren’t there any changes to Bap // Zen.


FEEDBACK ABOUT CURRENT EXPERIMENTAL.

The Junkrat changes are not good what so ever. There is way to much spam already in this game and damage increasing abilites. The last thing we need is more of that.

Torb is already a powerful character that didn’t really need more tank busting.

Moira - This is probably the only decent change here.

Mccree - Why oh why are we buffing a top picked and performing DPS? He’s not even bad right now, and actually fairly decent in all situations.

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To start off with, I think the moira change was good (though I still feel like there’s not much reason to have her other someone like bap or ana)

The McCree change, although isn’t a massive buff, he didn’t need it. He is still incredibly strong and the most picked DPS in all ranks, barring GM. I know you guys probably think “winrate”, but pickrate is actually related to winrate. Because a consistently high GM pr means people are not falling out of GM.

It’s really frustrating in general how you buffed mccree when there are many other heroes that deserved it more.

The junkrat change is very wild. The damage is simply too high. I think junkrat was already a solid pick before and he didn’t really need any changes. Also the falloff is a big nerf to good junkrats who can land their shots from range. I get that this is for double shield, but this doesn’t really address that. This is just a massive nerf to rein. Sigma will just eat junk spam in double shield.

Torb change I’m not sure about, I feel like he was already a sleeper pick, but I’m fine with it.

And to finish this off, I really hope you guys are looking at nerfing tracer. It’s really tiresome to see you guys try to add counters to her, without just simply nerfing her.

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Throwing in my two cents here;
Junkrat having changes to his damage values rewarding more skillful play:
V. Good
Falloff damage on impact? Terrible and unfair if the hero is singled out. Gotta do similar with Phara and other explosives or Junkrat may loose his place and be sidelined, something blizzard has been adamant about NOT doing.

McCree: mid air combat roll has already been tested and refused on the basis that certain locations should just be off limits without the aid of Symetra. High noon buffs will make these changes quite oppressive in high and low rank competitive. Lowered health and changes to flash bang could be needed to effectively balance with these changes.

Moira: a good quality of life change that helps all ranks.

Torbjorn: using less ammo flat out could present some problems with damage output and this coupled with more Overload opportunities could possibly allow the hero to challenge tanks too effectively. Lower ammo during overload and high outside of may be necessary

As always, thanks for keeping us updated. It’s genuinely appreciated.

Would you be able to share this with the devs and ask them if they think it’s fair to punish Junk players who are skilled enough to consistently hit these shots?

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The Junkrat changes are pretty solid. The team have been leaning torwards encouraging Direct hits and more aim for Junkrat which i am fine with.
The change is defo accomodated by the fact that the grenade does… an INSANE ammount of damage now lol. But my biggest fear is that if the team ends up taking a step back on it they keep the lower blast radius and gut the damage which… wouldnt be great.

I will say my main issue with the experimental itiration of the grenades though is that while i dont mind a reliance on more direct hits or hits made from impact with the grenade via bouncing or such, it could have just been my impression but it felt like the grenade had much more difficulty connecting onto enemies than it usually has. I don’t know if i missed something on the changes regarding this but i felt like many grenades that should have been direct hits normally would go through and miss, even some of the larger targets like hog or dva.

I think the blast radius nerf though works really well with the damage buff if the goal was to encourage more aiming with the crazy guy. If you need some indirect hits/explosions or a finisher you still have 2 concussion mines in your pockets.

I’m not sure why people complain so much about the damage falloff though. Junkrat is and always has been designed as a close quarter character. Like did i miss something or were people playing him as a sniper or something? I’ve mained Junkrat since launch and im starting to feel like by playing him right i’ve been mistakenly been playing him wrong this whole time because of the abundance of people complaining about this.

TF2 always had falloff damage to its explosives. Demoman was an exception but it was because unlike Junkrat, when his grenade hit the floor it couldnt come into impact with players anymore. Just explode and deal its area damage. I feel like the Junkrat change is a bit more justified by the fact that his grenade can still hit enemies or buildings in its path while it travels.

Anyway, interesting changes. I guess Junkrat won’t need to root high mobility chars in ow2 anymore if he can one shot tracer lmao

Unless that aiming involves hitting shots that actually require skill. Spamming into targets at close range and punishing hitting difficult shots shouldn’t be how he’s designed.

It lowers his skill floor to zero and lowers his skill ceiling an equivalent amount.

wags finger
Passive aggressive comments count as well Baja :smirk:

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  • Torb: enjoyed him more than I expected, the changes make his kit more fluid and gives more uptime for engagements. I would like these changes for a nerf to his turret (either the range, the dps or hp) so the damage is less extreme
  • Moira: the heal orb seems fine, the damage orb becomes more annoying sticking for longer on enemies
  • Mccree: the midair roll gives him more flanking potential and alternative routes to use, while not broken on its own, he needs a nerf to fan the hammer as it does too much damage
  • Junkrat: these changes seem to reinforce his close range playstyle which seems ok, the problem is the damage for directs can be too high for the spammy play style they require within those 15m, so I’d slightly reduce the directs

Also, if there is any way to ask the devs for more information on Zarya and Mei and their future balance changes it would be nice. They are not doing so amazing in the game right now, and for Mei specifically, I feel like reworking her role feels more natural for the character and a good way to give tank players a good design which fits more in their role.

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He still does a really high ammount of Damage even with the falloff, and you still need to land good skillshots at mid-range and in the open.

78 damage on the 2nd slowest projectile, with an arc, is in no way “really high damage”

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I’ll add this to the summary we’ll send along tomorrow.

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Thanks!

maybe on this thread…but ive mentioned MANY times how aggravating i find the hyperbole and exaggeration on here…im usually very forward about it

Can you ask the devs why they thought the interaction between mccree and doomfist needed to be more lobsided ?

I tested Junkrat and Moira

I think the Moira changes are good especially for making more effective use of her healing orb. The damage orb did not seem much more effective to use or any more annoying to play into.

The Junkrat changes not sure I like. It was fun to be able to melt tanks so fast, but not sure that is great for tanks. It also changes his fighting range, so his mayhem finished off a few tanks I couldn’t melt in time. Also while one shotting a random blinking Tracer a few times was funny as there was no skill just a lucky random hit, I don’t think that is great either.

I don’t think the Junkrat changes should go through. Moira changes seem solid though.

I think that the McCree changes are actually really good in a world where he doesn’t have 225 HP. It is just kind of overboard for a character who already has a stun. Extra health, air mobility, and and CC is too much IMO. I know he is meant to counter flankers/dive but I don’t like when OW gets too rock, paper, scissors feeling. The Moira changes I don’t like but really don’t make much of a difference anyways. Overload armor should be nerfed too if they intend it to be an offensive ability as to not allow best of both worlds, overload changes are solid though. The Junkrat changes are a great IDEA, not chage, IMO. I think it might take more than number changes to get Junk where the devs want him, hopefully a bigger rework for him on the way in OW2. But the idea of junk being closed ranged and having weak spam is very welcome.

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Nah, understatment of the decade.

Only Twitter is worse at this.

i like this one, long range spam without aim not killing instantly. like in eichenwalde bridge.

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